Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A type of compression system known in the prior art comprises a plurality of pressure wave generators and a compression chamber that is typically a large cylindrical or spherical vessel made of steel or any other high strength material or combination thereof that is designed as a pressure vessel capable of withstanding continuous high pressure and/or high pressure pulses generated by the pressure wave generators. The compression chamber can be filled with a fluid medium, such as a liquid metal. The plurality of pressure wave generators can be arranged around and secured to the wall of the compression chamber. Each pressure wave generator can include a hammer piston that can be accelerated to impact an anvil that is secured within a corresponding opening formed in the wall of the compression chamber. The impact of the hammer upon the corresponding anvil causes a compression wave to travel through the anvil into the liquid medium thus generating a pressure wave in the liquid medium. The generated pressure wave from each individual pressure wave generator can propagate through the liquid medium forming a collective pressure wave that converges toward the center of the chamber. Examples of systems and methods for generating pressure waves in a compression chamber are described in the U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0163130, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
During the operation of the compression system, intermittent internal high pressure pulses can be generated, for example, by reflecting pressure waves inside the compression chamber. The compression chamber should be capable of withstanding such high pressures without fatiguing, and thus should be designed to be robust with relatively few weak points. There are few companies in the world which are capable of manufacturing pressure vessels suitable for use as a compression chamber in this type of compression system, and making such vessels are expensive with long lead times.